Zion National Park

After leaving Las Vegas, I drove to Utah and Zion National Park. The drive was quick and went through very beautiful landscape. About half way there, it started to rain, although only briefly. Being in the desert during a rain storm is an experience. Watching the plants open their leaves to grab as much moisture as possible. The rain lasted only 10 minutes and then the sun came back out.

Zion is an ancient Hebrew word meaning a place of refuge or sanctuary. Protected within the park's 229 square miles is a dramatic landscape of sculptured canyons and soaring cliffs. Zion is located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin and Mojave Desert provinces. This unique geography and the variety of life zones within the park make Zion significant as a place of unusual plant and animal diversity.

I bought a spot in Watchman Campground and then went on the park shuttle. The shuttle is the only way to see the park, the road is closed to other vehicles while the shuttle is operating. You may get on and off the shuttle at various stops, and the they run about every 10-15 minutes. It takes approximately 90 minutes to ride the entire route.

I got off the shuttle and watched a group of 4 rock climbers. The canyon walls can be as high as 2100 feet. It takes a bit of patience to try and find these specks of humans on the walls of the canyon. I used my new 500mm lens that I purchased in Phoenix to scope them out.

A rain storm was beginning and I headed back to the campground. A nice girl named Libby from Santa Cruz, California was next to me and we talked quite a bit about traveling through the different parks in the area. A deer wandered into the campground to get to the high grass between the sites. It didn't mind all the people around and after it got its fill, headed back into the nearby woods.

I left at 5:30am the next day to get a jump start on Bryce Canyon.